Cypherpunks and terrorism

[Sunder]

On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, Nomen Nescio wrote:

> Declan McCullagh writes:
> > On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 06:00:46PM +0200, Nomen Nescio wrote:
> > > Some terrorists have exactly this as their goal.  They are hoping
> > > to trigger a counter-reaction, an over-reaction, by the authorities.
> > > They want to see a crackdown on liberties, a police state.  This will
> > > weaken the enemy and demoralize him.  It will increase hostility and
> > > make the population less willing to support the government.
> >
> > This is nonsense. I suspect the bin Laden want the U.S. to stop
> > handing Israel billions of dollars a year in aid and weapons. Not
> > bombing pharmecutical plants and lifting an embargo that kills
> > hundreds of thousands (allegedly) of Iraqi women and children might be
> > a nice move too.
> 
> It's always amazing to see how stupid the responses are to various
> messages.  There seems to be no limit to the ignorance of the cypherpunks.

There is certainly no limit to the stupidity of those who would try to
twist our views to those of trolls, schills, and fools.  Any two bit moron
can tell us what we should think.  I believe it is our responsability to
point this out publically, and let others take notice that we are subtly
manipulated by those with an agenda.

If you are indeed the same anonymous troll (note: not that I believe
anonymous remailers are bad!) who yesterday posted that cryptography was
bad, that cypherpunks are responsible in any way shape or form with this
terrorist act, that the DMCA and the like are good, my answer to you is
still: Go fuck yourself.

The terrorists have several agendas certainly.  One of which is causing
fear uncertainty and doubt.  Sadly, there are reports that this is
somewhat sucessful.  I personally, do not and will not feel fear,
uncertainty or doubt.  I will not allow this event to cloud or otherwise
alter the way in which I live.  The only change in me, and again, I do not
claim to speak for others, is that I feel rage towards them.

I do not believe that any heightened security measures at airports or
anywhere else will prevent this sort of thing from happening
again.  Previously, they had used guns, now they used knives, to
hijack airplanes.  Previously they have used car bombs.  I do not believe
they will continue to do the same because of the clampdowns.

But it is silly to think that anything short of hunting these bastards
down would stop them.  Curtailing any of our freedoms is inherently a bad
side effect, and mark my words, will not prevent further attacks.

One good thing that comes out of this is the deployment of sky marshals as
they are being called.  Finally someone somewhere has sense enough to
realize that "Gun" is not a four letter word and is necessary.

But what happens when they manage to switch places with a sky marshal and
thus have a vector of infiltration?  Shouldn't the pilots, crew and yes,
even passengers have guns?  Again, I operate with the full and confident
knowlege that 90+% of the population is good and law abiding.  That
allowing the public to be its own defender is by far more effective than
disarming them.

The one proven effective way to deal with them was displayed by the heros
who rushed the cabin and forced the fourth plane down in Pittsburgh.  We
as a society have become too complacent, too much the sheeple.  We must
re-learn what the founders of this country knew.  That liberty must be
defended and fought for.  With our lives.  We must not restrict our
freedoms, we must rather fight back with everything we've got.

The terroristas' agenda may be one of revenge, FUD, economic collapse, and
wishes to cause the public to force the government to change our policies
towards Israel and interfearing in their countries.

They do not wish us to tighten security, for that would work against them,
but in a very real sense, if we do, we allow their acts to curtail our
freedoms, and that is the only thing that separates our country's form of
government from the Taliban run Afghanistan.  

Yes, we have more land, more resources, a better economy than they do.  
But our freedoms are key to this success as Soviet run Russia has shown.  
Freedom is what has made us prosperous, and if we curtail it, we march
towards the evil that is totalitarianism regardless of which face it wears
(monarchist, religeous, fascist, socialist, or communist.)

Sure, it was a stupid idea for the USA to help create the state of Israel
by taking land from Arabs that already hate Israelites and by placing it
square in the center of said Arabs, of placing the lamb so it is
surrounded by wolves.  Sure it was stupid of the USA to train and arm
these bastards* when they were called "Freedom fighters."

But the stupidest thing we have done is to allow them to live and grow.  
Never let an enemy stand is the golden rule, and perhaps now we have
learned it.  When someone declares war on the USA, even if they're just a
bunch of guys that live in tents and fuck camels for fun, they have shown
that they are willing to cause us harm, and therefore must be exterminated
- just as we would the government of a country that has declared war on
us.  Not by attacking their civilians, but by chopping down the heads of
these groups.

And further, I hope that the $24B dollars that the Fed's have given us in
NYC will be used to rebuild a new World Trade Center with three such
towers.  They must see that if they knock down two towers, we will build
three or four or even five bigger ones.  Such a rebuilding effort would
help our economy by itself. They must learn that they will not be able to
weaken us, but rather strengthen us.

These events were very low tech, very well planned, very inexpensive.  It
would not take a great deal of resources, it would not take anonymous
remailers, cryptography, steganography, missles, tanks, bombs, or anything
of the like to pull off.  It proved that it didn't even take guns.  

It proved that the sheeple among us who have been crying out against guns,
who have kicked our children out of schools for drawing pictures of their
grandfathers in uniform fighting in WWI, Korea, Vietnam or WWII, who have
berated and vilified cryptography, privacy, and liberty were mindless
stupid sheep **.

It proves that had we been allowed to carry guns openely and honestly,
even in airplanes, that the bastard* terroristas would not have been able
to pull this off.  It proves that attacks on our freedoms are inherently
wrong, and that they make us vulnerable against those who wish to harm us.

One story I wish to add to my rant, when I was in elementry school,
another kid had stabbed me in the arm with a sharpened pencil.  No harm
was done, but if it had been a knife the other kid would have been in deep
shit.  Even if we were to ban knives on air planes, what's to stop other
terrorists from simply weilding sharpened pencils?  A man with a gun,
that's what!  And what would stop a man with a gun from attacking mere
unarmed citizens?  Armed citizens, that's what!

And what's to stop hacker terrorists from breaking into our banks?  Strong
well designed cryptographic protocols, that's what!

Making laws against these technologies will do what?  Weaken us and make
us defenseless against these terror mongers, that's what!


* It is hillarious to note that someone has actually bothered to email me
on my use of the word "Bastard" claiming that she is a good person though
her parents were out of wedlock at the time of her birth.  I'm glad that
the political correct police has the intestinal fortitude and brightness
to place their priorities in order when something of this nature takes
effect.  I'm sure it will be of great comfort to the thousands that have
died in these events that she has done her honorable act and attempted to
set me straight on my use of language.

Hopefully she has also done constructive things such as donating blood and
money.

** I'm sure some other politically correct asshole will email me about how
much he is in love with his flock of sheep after diddling them and how it
would be wrong of me to blame sheep for those of us who act as cowardly
sheep.